1 Oct 2012

Four Directions for the IT Department

Today, corporate IT doesn’t
deliver what is expected and its position is undermined. Some tendencies have
been initiated putting corporate IT at a fork in the road. The precipice is
near. This left the IT department with four options: choosing for the right
road, for a funny off-road path, for the dead-end way or for going completely
off the road to fall into the precipice. More precisely:

The first road can be described as holistic and
systemic. It leads the IT department to a repositioned, reconsolidated and
professionalised IT department that is capable to play its role entirely and
take up its responsibility at the benefit of the company. The IT department is
able to create a fertile environment to totally exploit IT. This approach is
based on a holistic and systemic approach.

The motto driving the IT departments on the second
path sounds like “Delivering as fast as possible software applications matching
the demands expressed by the business community". It’s a reactive
approach. It’s about on-demand serving the business community. The role of the IT department is essentially a technological
one. This is expected
to offer a greater flexibility.

The IT department driving road of externalisation.
There are many shops along this road. The focus is on buying solutions and
making use of services offered by external providers. These suppliers and the
acquired solutions and services must still be managed. Imperceptibly the IT
department will lose its authority and its competencies which are so valuable
for the company.

The fourth road leads the IT department straight to
the precipice. It fails to play its true role, its acquisitions are failures
and it fails to manage the services, solutions and suppliers. This would leave
the business community very dissatisfied. This scenario may put the company in
danger and is rather extreme.

In reality these are not
four distinct roads. They are rather directions.

The IT department can
evolve “by itself”. Or, it can also be consciously steered in one of these
directions. Before making choices, it is important to understand the forces and
the tendencies that influenced corporate IT and the IT departments.